Short History of Rap Music

The rock music was popular in America and in 1980’s and 90’s came the emergence of rap music from influence of Afro American pop music. The radical thinking and innovations made other similar type of music a bit damp. The New York City, Brooklyn and Bronx were home of Jamaican community and the DJ’s of this community often used to mix sounds from various turntables.

Mixing and the device called Turntable became the base of Rap music in later years. The music became popular in 1973 in Harlem, Bronx and Brooklyn. It was all about rhymes that got a rhythm that was set by the beat of drums and other instruments.

History of the type of music

Rap music and Hip Hop music that are all time favorite of the young people of modern era was actually created thousands of years ago. There were village storytellers in Africa who were named ‘Griots’ and they made some simple instrument to play during their storytelling sessions. The stories were based on family life and events of bravery in villages. The major communication was carried by the griots in Africa and they had this way of talking in rhythm and playing the drum like instrument.

Rap music of calling and responding

The rap music also has its share of sadness of the slaves. The Black Americans were mostly slaves during a certain period and they worked hard throughout the day. They sang while they worked and someone would call and others would answer in the similar sing song form or in rhythm. This calling and answering continued in churches too and this became the early rap music that has been worked on by different modern artists.

These rhythmic stories exploded into the American ears as the American music was not being worked on favorably for some time. The West Africans with their simple stories and drum beats took the imagination of the Americans and folk singers of Caribbean Islands took interest to improve music.

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Subjects for the rappers lyrics

The chanting of lyrics in a rhythmic way is the basis of Rap music and the one who works on the lyrics is called Rapper. This form is a stylish way given to modern poetry. The Rappers talked about sensitive subjects like drug abuse, love and relationship, socio political issues and violence.

Rapping lyrics in a rhythm became popular in 1970’s and it was a street art for the African American girls and boys. The Sugarhill group released ‘Rapper’s Delight’ in 1979 and it became an encouraging way to bring this music into limelight. Soon there were a good number of people who wanted to hear Rap music and it was given reverence as a separate genre.

Rap music and its popularity

There were African American Rap artists initially but slowly you would find the White Rappers were gaining foothold. The White Rap bands like Beastie Boys and Rap Bands by female artists named Salt-n- Pepa were bringing in more music. The year 1982 saw the rap music coming up named The Message.

This had the realistic picture of slums of America where the Africans lived in very low hygienic condition. Then in 1986 came music video named “Walk this Way” and Rap music took its place with MTV channel. There were more music videos in this form of music. The people found truth and poetry in these lyrics and they were able to relate to music as their own.